Crying for the Light Volume Iii Part 16

'Public opinion would never consent to that.'

'No,' replied Buxton; 'I am quite aware of that; but I would create a public opinion that would regard such marriages with horror, and then they would gradually become rare. Men and women have duties to society, and have to think of something else than the gratification of selfish pa.s.sion or mere animal instinct. It is thus hereditary disease may disappear, and the nation be all the stronger and happier and richer. I know there are good people who look upon such afflictions as the result of the Lord's chastening hand, and as they bury wife, or husband, or son, or daughter, learn to kiss the rod-as they call it-and to thank the Lord that He thus is weaning them from the world, and preparing them for a better world, whither they tell us their loved ones are already gone. I have no sympathy with that state of mind. It seems to me almost blasphemous, as the bereavements they rejoice in for their supposed sanctifying effects are simply the natural result of their own folly and imprudence and disregard of natural law. In the days of ignorance how did we treat the insane? Why, they were regarded as victims of Divine wrath, and the priest was called in-and of course well paid-to exorcise the evil spirit. That we do not do so now is a proof that we are a little wiser than our fathers-that, in fact, we are not quite such thundering fools; but we have a good deal yet to learn, nevertheless.'

'The fact is,' said Wentworth, 'a man must learn to deny himself for the public good. Rather a difficult task that. If the victim of hereditary disease refuses to marry and have children, hereditary disease will die out. Is not that asking too much of human nature?'

'There we must appeal to the law for the protection of the general public. The community is of more importance than the individual.'

'But there is no law that cannot be evaded.'

'Exactly so. Laws against drunkenness are constantly broken, but they have a beneficial effect nevertheless. A prohibitory liquor law goes too far. To act on the idea that a gla.s.s of claret, or beer, or cider does mischief to anyone is absurd. Walter Mapes was right when he wrote in praise of drink. As the old monk writes-

'"A gla.s.s of wine amazingly enliveneth one's internals."'

'You are right there,' replied Wentworth. 'Last summer I was at a seaside watering-place. There had been a regatta there, and I had written a description of it for our paper. In a day or two after the event was celebrated by a grand dinner at the leading hotel, to which I was invited. Unfortunately, on the day of the dinner I was desperately ill. My head was splitting; my skin was as tough as the hide of a rhinoceros; I ached in every limb. I went to the medical men of the district; there were two of them in partnership. No. 1 made me believe that I was in a bad way; No. 2 made me out worse. "Could I go to the dinner?" I asked. "By no means," was the reply. "Take this medicine, go home and go to bed, and we will come and see you in the morning." Ill as I was, I went to the dinner. It was a very jovial one, and I sat drinking champagne till late. I went home, slept like a top, and woke up as well as I ever was in my life. The next morning the doctor came.

"Ah," he said, "I see you look all the better for my medicine." I said, "I did not take a drop of your medicine. I went to the dinner, drank champagne all night, and it was that which cured me." "Very strange that," said the doctor. "The very things we think poison have often quite a contrary effect." My own opinion is that if I had taken the medicine I should have been ill for a week at least. I don't take wine as a daily drink, because I can't afford it, for one reason, and for another because I believe, taken daily, it has a mischievous effect. But there are times when it does good, and life is not so joyous that we can afford to dispense entirely with the pleasant stimulus of wine. I would not prevent its manufacture. No society has ever existed without the winecup for its feasts and holidays. I would not put down the liquor traffic. I would only shut up the drink shops. It is they that cause the drunkenness which does so much mischief, and there is no need for their existence at all.

'But let us hear what her ladyship has to say,' said Buxton.

'What are you talking about?' she said.

'A regenerated State.'

'Ah, there is need for it,' she said. 'But how are you to get it? That is the question.'

'Oh, nothing is easier. Buy a farm in Ess.e.x and form there a model society.'

'With a cheap train to take your people to London in an hour or two?

That will never do.'

'Well, then, let us go to Canada and plant our Utopia there.'

'And fail, as others have done,' said she.

'But we shall take picked men and women, and with them we cannot fail.'

'But they are not immortal.'

'Happily,' said Buxton, 'none of us are that. We've all got to die and make room for the new generation.'

'And can you answer for the new generation?' asked Rose, 'that they will remain shut up in your Utopia to labour, not each for himself, but for mutual benefit; that they will conform to your ideas as regards drinking and matrimony; that no selfish pa.s.sion will run riot; that no serpent will come into that paradise to tempt another Eve; that the new Adam will be wiser than the old one?'

'Why, I thought you were in favour of the idea,' said her husband.

'But I am a woman.'

'And therefore have a full right to change your opinion,' added Buxton.

'Of course, there must be some failures. It is by them we learn how to succeed,' replied Wentworth. 'We learn from the failure of past organizations the way to form better and more successful ones. Are there not successful Shaker settlements in America?'

'You make me laugh,' said the lady.

'This is no laughing matter. We are very much in earnest.'

'Well, if you are in earnest, let me have the selection of the candidates for the new society.'

'Very good; but I am afraid you will only pa.s.s the good-looking ones, and forget the old time-honoured maxim that "handsome is as handsome does."'

'A maxim I laugh to scorn.'

'Of course you do.'

'Well, you want healthy men and women, don't you? And good looks are only to be found with physical health. It is by over-eating and over-drinking and over-working that you get a diseased and ugly race. Go to our east coast seaside resorts and see what fine men and women there are there. Contrast them with the operatives of the mine and factory.

They scarcely seem to belong to the same race. A good-looking girl is happier than a plain one. You men are all for good looks. A fine physical organization indicates something more desirable. Nor do I blame them. "The soul is form, and doth the body make." The homage we pay to beauty in man or woman is but rational. What made Alcibiades a power in Athens but his good looks? Did not Jew and Greek alike agree in doing honour to Adonis? The outward form indicates the inner disposition. If men are to have a brighter world we must people it with brighter people.

But I think on the whole you had better stop where you are. Society in one way does improve. Progress is slow-but inst.i.tutions are hard to remove, bad habits harder still. Why go out into the wilderness to teach people to be content with an agricultural life? Better fifty years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay. Better to bear the ills we have than fly to those we know not of.'

'Your ladyship is poetical!'

'Not a bit of it-only practical, as we women always are when you men are up in the clouds. I believe, as soon as the peasant has got back to the hind, we shall have a new era for England, I believe the agricultural labourer who is helped to emigrate to Canada can better his condition at once. But I am not an agricultural labourer. I have no wish to pa.s.s my days in milking cows and rearing poultry; I have no wish to pa.s.s my days thousands of miles away from London, or Paris, or Rome. Am I not the heir of all the ages underneath the sun? I am for stopping at home and doing all the good I can. I do not feel called upon to dress like a guy, as the Shaker women do; nor do I see how you can make any settlement that can last. It may succeed for a time, if the conditions are favourable, and you select the men and women whom you take out. But as the old ones die off and the young people grow up there will be all sorts of difficulties. Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge had similar dreams. It was fortunate for them and the world that they were unable to carry them out. They did much better work at home. As long as human nature remains what it is we must build on the old lines.'

'How then, would you regenerate society?'

'By the regeneration of the individual. What is society but a collection of men? Save the man and the ma.s.s are saved. Buxton believes in science; Wentworth, you believe in politics. Well, both are means to an end; but more is required.'

'And that is?'

'Christ in the heart.'

'Rather an exploded idea in these enlightened times. Why, you take us back to the dark ages!' said Buxton.

'Dark ages, indeed! At any rate they were ages of faith-when men believed in G.o.d, and did mighty works. Alas! we have no such men now.'

'And why not?'

'Because this is the age of material organization, of mechanical progress, of the exaltation of the ma.s.s over the individual, of an artificial equality; an age that has lost faith, an age of despair, when the rich man cries "Let us eat and drink, for to-morrow we die;" when the statesman recklessly legislates, believing "After me the deluge;" when the people "feed on lies." "The light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness apprehendeth it not."'

'Nevertheless,' said Wentworth, 'I feel inclined to make a start in Canada. Rose, I know, will come after a little pressing; and if you will come with us, I have a friend who has placed some land at my disposal. I have found some men and women of the right stamp who are ready to emigrate. They live in unhealthy homes, they have bad food, and are diseased in consequence. They are surrounded by evil companions, and that leads them into crime. Man is, to a certain extent, the creature of circ.u.mstance.

'Yes, that is too true,' replied Buxton; 'but what do you propose as the remedy?'

'Well, that is what I am coming to. Remove the pauper, place him in a new world, and with better surroundings, and he will become a better man.

My friend is quite prepared to do so; he is ready to help the poor to emigrate to the colonies or America.'

'But if the colonies or America will not have them, what are you to do?

They may object-in fact, they do object to the poor of this country being thrown dest.i.tute and helpless on their sh.o.r.es.'

'That is true; but my friend is resolved to send out only deserving men and women whose characters will be carefully inquired into, and to send them out under competent guides. He proposes to buy a large estate in some eligible part of the world, where land is cheap, where the climate is healthy, and where all that is wanted to develop the fruits of the earth, and to ensure health and happiness to the people, is human labour.

Of course, he does not propose to deal with the ma.s.ses; but he has an idea, that if he makes an attempt and it succeeds, other wealthy and benevolent men will follow his example, and thus the amount of crime, and misery, and poverty in England may be diminished.'